The US president ended his speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner in epic style. He has perfected the sign-off – but who else has done it well?No mic drop in history will ever be as thoroughly scrutinised as the one performed by Barack Obama during his final White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening. Historians hundreds of years from now will refer to his “Obama out in the same breath as the Emancipation Proclamation and Mr Gorbachev,tear down this wall.” But how did we get here, and what does it all mean?As a gesture, or the mic drop signals the close of a statement so definitive that it cannot possibly be followed. It’s an act of destruction,as described in Eric B and Rakim’s 1987 single I Ain’t No Joke: “I used to let the mic smoke / Now I slam it when Im done and do sure it’s broke.” Notable mic-droppers over time absorb included everyone from Eddie Murphy to Chris Rock to the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner.
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Source: theguardian.com